One of my favourite magazines is "Mother Earth News" which I
subscribe to (the cost is less than I spend on coffee in one morning)
for the wealth of information it gives on living in an incrementally
environmentally-friendly manner. Their do-it-yourself projects are a
great way to spend afternoons at home in a workshed and some of their
gardening and cooking tips are also very useful for anyone so
inclined. It was with a mixture of optimism and sadness that I read
the following article on their website: http://tinyurl.com/5oyqu8
West Bengal has plans to develop solar thermal energy generation to feed into the state grid and the state of Gujarat in India is planning a similar project supported by the Clinton Foundation.
But, the terribly poor and power-starved countries of SOuth Asia, all
of whom are bathed in abundant sushine, have, unfortunately, not done
anything to use this resource to power their economies. It is not
that funds are not available - the US Exim Bank offers $ 2.2 billion
a year in credits for renewable energy projects in India alone. There
is more money on offer for other countries. And European countries
that have invetsed in these technologies in a big way like Germany,
Spain and France also have their own incentive schemes.
Commentators like N Sachitanand in India have been pushing for more
investment in nuclear power while decrying solar power as being too
expensive, selectively focusing their ire on solar photovoltaics
(which are currently expensive though there are companies that are
working round the clock to bring the costs down) but without
mentioning Solar Thermal Energy Systems. I can guess who pays
Sachitanand's bills - if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a
duck . . . you get the idea.
Those who have their views on this piece are welcome to comment on
the magazine's website. You do not need to be a subscriber to do
this. That said, I would hope that this information could somehow be
spread so that South Asia could harness this power that it has in
abundance and not send the meagre amounts of money that it has to the
Middle East. At the very least, the treatment of South Asians in that
part of the world (witness the harassment of Bangladeshis in Kuwait
as discussed on these very forums for example) demands that South
Asia does nto send slave labour anymore to that part of the world and
then send the money earned by its people through tremendous suffering
back there to buy oil from them.
Mehul Kamdar
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
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